Mini Implants Were Made For Big, Beautiful Smiles

November 16, 2016

Dental implants revolutionized modern restorative dentistry by creating a strong, stable way to replace missing teeth. Mini implants allow us to help more patients than ever before at our dentist office in Red Bank, NJ.

The main thing to know is that mini implants can do all the things that dental implants can and in situations in which traditional implants won’t work. Denise DiBona, DDS, has been restoring smiles for decades. She knows exactly how to help if you are missing one, two, three, or all the teeth in your mouth.

Call or contact us online to make an appointment. You could recreate your smile and restore the function of your lost teeth with our mini implants.

Why Dental Implants Won’t Always Work

Nothing works in every situation. While traditional dental implants work in many, many cases, there are times when they won’t. Specifically, they won’t work if you don’t have enough bone left in your jaw to hold the implants in place.

In a way, this is a bit ironic since implants can help you maintain the health of your jaw. But only if you get them before your jaw shrinks too much.

You may be wondering why people’s jawbones shrink. It starts with when you lose a tooth or teeth.

As you may already know, teeth have two halves. The crown is the part you can see. This is what we replace with dental crowns, dental bridges, and dentures.< The root is the part of your teeth that's hidden behind your gums. Your roots anchor your teeth in your jawbone, but that's only part of what they do. Roots also help your jaw stay healthy. Every time you take a bite and every time you chew, you push your roots into your jaw. This pressure causes your jaw to create new bone tissue. That new tissue replaces older tissue to keep the bone strong. If you lose teeth (and thus the roots), nothing is pushing into your jawbone. As a result, no new tissue is created in that part of your mouth. Thus, nothing replaces the old tissue as it is reabsorbed. Over time, your jaw gets smaller and smaller. In fact, losing a single tooth can lead someone to lose 25 percent of the bone in that part of their jaw within a year. This is just one of the reasons Dr. DiBona would encourage you to replace your missing teeth as soon as you are able. We want you to enjoy all the benefits of restorative dentistry, and you can do that by making an appointment at our dentist office.

How Mini Implants Help

The value of dental implants can be illustrated in how they are used to replace single teeth and every tooth in your mouth

Before modern dental implants, dental bridges were the most common way to replace a single missing tooth. To get a dental bridge, the dentist had to grind down the two teeth closest to your lost tooth.

In other words, losing one tooth meant damaging two others to replace it. With a dental implant, Dr. DiBona is able to replace the root of the lost tooth and place a dental crown on it. No other teeth need to be harmed in the process.

A mini implant can do this same job. More importantly, it can fit in bone that has shrunk to the point that it can no longer support a full-sized implant.

Mini implants often are useful in securing dentures as well.

Traditional dentures rest over your gums. This is why adhesives are needed to help make them a little more secure. Even so, your jaw will continue to shrink without dental implants to replace your roots.

Over time, the shape of your mouth changes because of your shrinking jawbone. This also is why patients have to refit or replace their denture every 3 to 8 years. A patient may go through this replacement process multiple times before he or she decides to get implant-supported dentures instead.

By think, their jaw may be too small for full-sized implants. Again, mini implants can come to the rescue. Mini implants have a smaller diameter, so they can still fit when full-sized implants won’t.

Don’t put off your smile another day. Don’t eat another meal wondering if your dentures will fall out with your next bite.

Make an appointment at our Red Bank dentist office, and find out if mini implants can restore the appearance and the function of your lost teeth.

Call To Schedule A Consultation

The first step in getting dental implants or mini implants is a consultation with Dr. DiBona. We want you to find the right solution because we want it to last for as long as it can.

Call Today to Make an Appointment

If you are ready to schedule a dental appointment with us, please feel free to give our team and dentist in Red Bank, NJ a call at (732) 945-5343. You can also fill out our convenient online appointment form, and one of our friendly team members will call you back shortly.